Older Adults May Be Unwilling to Give Up Colorectal Screening

A study of 1,054 senior U.S. veterans published in JAMA Network Open found many are unwilling to stop regular colonoscopies, even though most thought it was reasonable to use age in choosing when to start screening, reports Reuters Health . Almost half of respondents said age should never factor in the decision to end screening, and nearly 33 percent said they opposed doctors considering life expectancy in deciding whether a recipient should get a colonoscopy. Veterans were more likely to be comfortable with a halt to screening if they had a higher level of trust in their doctors and if they rated their own health as good. Michigan Medicine Professor Sameer Saini said these findings indicate that "efforts to individualize screening in older adults are going to be met with some resistance, especially if we're being explicit with the subject about using risk calculators to make decisions." He suggested the problem may be partly due to the fact that doctors often do not emphasize, or even raise, the issue that colonoscopy has risks that tend to increase with age. Saini's recommendation is that persons over 75 discuss the pros and cons of repeat colonoscopies with physicians. "I think people should think carefully about the potential benefits and harms of any medical procedure they are getting," he said.